Hi. It’s been a while.
Moving to a different country, starting a new life, new jobs, lots of traveling and a new career will do that to you.
Anyways, today we’re talking about writing.
2023 was one of the busiest and most frustrating years ever. I started a new career and, while the content is ok, I hate the school and the teaching methodology, and I kinda regret going for it. But my mom didn’t raise a quitter, so here I still am. Working a full-time job and being a full-time student doesn’t leave a lot of time for your passions. Last year when I wasn’t working, or in class, I was either doing homework, house chores like cooking, or laundry, or sleeping, and the only time I could indulge in any sort of hobbies was while I commuted from work to class, from class to home.
But then December came around and that long-awaited winter break was here, so I went home for a month and visited my friends and family. And in a conversation with one of my closest friends who’s working on a romantic comedy webtoon, I remembered an old story I devised and started… wait for it… 11 years ago!
And the name of the story… you guessed it. Ultraviolet! Not The Ultraviolet Project… just Ultraviolet, but everything sounds cooler with the word “Project” next to it, doesn’t it? And I got proof! (Although if you’re also a writer, you probably have these kinds of old manuscripts of your own)
The plot
Ultraviolet is a recently formed band from Eastbourne, England that has been gaining exponential success in the UK rock scene. The band was supposed to have their big break at the ‘Sonic After Shock’ festival in London, where a record deal was at stake, but on that day, everything that could go wrong went wrong.
A fight among the festival staff and several of the participating bands, Ultraviolet included, and even the attending crowd takes place, which ends with the police showing up and the cancellation of the festival. Many of the involved had to serve temporary jail time for obstruction of the peace at a public event, but the Ultraviolet members somehow managed to get away with therapy sessions. However, by this point, the band members don’t want to know anything about each other, but if they want to avoid jail time they’ll have to come together during therapy and go back to where the dream started and figure out where it all went wrong.
I wish I remembered what was the main inspiration for this idea. And no, surprisingly it didn’t come from Daisy Jones and The Six, despite their similar elements. Ultraviolet was born in 2013, while Daisy Jones came out in 2019.
But why a band? why in England? And why in every variation of the brainstorming stage they end up in therapy? I suppose I thought it would make for a good comedy. I planned the characters, planned the beginning of the story and the structure of it and I even started writing it, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what was going on back in December of 2013 that I simply didn’t continue it, and I never knew how it ended, It’s funny because I would always see its folder on my drafts (whenever I decided to work on other projects) and I told myself, “Hey, I really liked that story. Some day I would really like to get back to it.”
Well. That day is… not today, but back in January 2024, when I’d decided that I’d had enough of not writing anything for over a year, and decided that I’d finish Ultraviolet! (And also because my other project is a fantasy that needs a ton of work in the worldbuilding part, and Ultraviolet is a much easier story, also with a much smaller cast).
So that’s what I’ve been up to, and I want to document/liveblog(?) my journey. As of today, my Ultraviolet file stands at 19 pages and 9576 words (it would’ve been 31 pages and 15777 words, but I recently chopped off like 10 pages because I didn’t like it at all).
I’m not a fast writer… but I’m very excited and the characters and their shenanigans don’t leave my head for a minute… not while I’m on vacation, not even when I’m at work, so hopefully that’s a good sign.
In other news, I created an Instagram for it based on pictures I’ve taken before and on lyrics from the Ultraviolet “album” playlist and the characters’ playlists. There’s not much yet on it, but if you want, you can follow it here.
That’s it for today! Support Ultraviolet!
pj out!
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